When we switched over to the new site in January we set up 301 redirects for every individual page from the old site to the new site. What a 'mare that was setting up the spreadsheet!

But what a difference it's made. We have reaped the rewards in terms of rankings. Our new site has been fully indexed and has started ranking well. It's also driving some good business leads through - which is the aim.

When companies move over to a new site, the one thing that's overlooked time and time again are the 301 redirects. How will the search engines find your new site if all the old pages are 404 error pages? Having your entire site as 404 error pages are one sure way to drop out the search engines.

Setting up 301 redirects are something you'd need to talk to your technical department about or your web development team. One really good source of information I found is on the Cre8te Forums.

The lack of knowledge and knowhow is the main reason it gets overlooked. Just think of the lost revenue, sales and enquiries through a site, just because they didn't implement 301 redirects!!! Certainly good food for thought.